Lewis Hamilton will take to an F1 track in a Ferrari for the second time this week, with the Scuderia booking out a circuit in Spain for three days of testing.

With Hamilton starting work for Ferrari last week, the seven-time F1 World Champion drove a scarlet red car from Maranello for the first time as he completed a shakedown Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) test in the 2023 SF-23.

Lewis Hamilton set for Barcelona test

Hamilton completed 30 laps of the Fiorano circuit during the test day last Wednesday, with his first lap taking place on rain tyres for a single installation run before returning to the pits.

With the fog that lingered over the Italian circuit lifting, Hamilton got going in earnest using slick tyres for some flying laps, while also attempting some practice starts – his full programme consisted of 89 kilometres of driving.

This figure is relevant to the regulations under which Hamilton was driving because, as of this year, race drivers (combined) are only permitted to clock up a total of 1000 kilometres during a calendar year.

With the Fiorano test a great way for both Hamilton and Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc – who drove the SF-23 on Wednesday afternoon – to blow off the cobwebs having not driven since the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix season finale at the start of December, attention now turns to the next outing.

This will take place at a closed-door test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya this week, running from Tuesday to Thursday, January 28th to 30th.

The three-day test will also run under under TPC regulations, with Hamilton and Leclerc expected to run either the SF-23 or the 2022 F1-75 – both of which conform to the rules.

The test will allow Hamilton more time to get used to the Ferrari’s handling intricacies as well as get to grips with the systems and protocols in place at his new team, at a more familiar venue as the Barcelona circuit has been a popular testing venue throughout Hamilton’s time in F1.

Following on from this TPC test, Hamilton is then set to take part in another test at the same track on February 4th and 5th. However, this test won’t be a privately-held Ferrari outing but will be part of Pirelli’s permitted testing this year for the tyre manufacturer’s 2026 development programme – McLaren is also set to take part in this test.

This test will be carried out with an SF-24 mule car, tweaked to suit the aerodynamic demands of the new regulations which will be introduced next season.

More on Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari

👉 Four important tasks on Lewis Hamilton’s first Ferrari to-do list

👉 10 biggest sports deals in history: Where does Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari salary rank?

What are the regulations behind Testing with Previous Cars (TPC)?

With Formula 1 teams only permitted to test with current cars at official pre-season tests and Pirelli tyre testing, the regulations are a little more open to allow the use of older cars.

Teams are permitted to carry out private tests using ‘Previous Cars’, which are defined as a competing team carrying out a test using cars designed and constructed to comply with the technical regulations of any of the three calendar years prior to the calendar year preceding the championship year.

Put simply, in 2025, teams are permitted to carry out TPC running with the 2021, ’22, and ’23 cars. Given the regulation changes introduced for 2022, there would be little reward for running a 2021 car in such a test, meaning the 2022 and ’23 cars are still the most likely to be used.

Up until recently, TPC testing could be used for any reason but was primarily used as a way to give rookie drivers or team juniors opportunities to get acquainted with F1 machinery. For example, Mercedes carried out an extensive programme of TPC outings with Kimi Antonelli throughout 2024, giving the Brackley-based squad plenty of track time under which to evaluate the young Italian and monitor his progress as he clocked up the miles in Mercedes’ 2022 W13.

He carried out TPC tests at the Red Bull Ring, Imola, Silverstone, and Barcelona last year, with team boss Toto Wolff revealing he’s done around 9000 kilometres of preparation for his maiden season in F1 – that was between his TPC programme as well as his outings in the 2024 W15 at Monza, Mexico, and Abu Dhabi.

But while Antonelli’s testing was used as preparation, a TPC test carried out by Red Bull with Max Verstappen driving the 2022 RB18 at Imola raised eyebrows. While perfectly legal, the test was used as a way to give Verstappen a feel for the car with which he was happy driving during that season, in order to use as a comparison against the troublesome RB20 during last season’s developmental travails.

The outing saw Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur call for a revision to the rules governing TPC, with the regulations duly tweaked this year to curtail active race driver’s mileage.

TPC running for any contract race drivers is restricted to 1000 kilometres per team for the calendar year, meaning Hamilton and Leclerc’s driving at Fiorano and Barcelona will count towards this allowance. Ferrari’s Fiorano outing, between its two drivers, thus used up 131 kilometres of this allowance.

It’s for this reason that Mercedes sent Antonelli out in a 2020 W11 at Jerez earlier this month – it allowed the youngster to gain some more mileage driving an F1 car without eating into the team’s annual TPC allowance for him and teammate George Russell, even if the mileage was in a less representative car.

Read Next: Global F1 Reddit community moves to ban popular social media site